Playbook

Chapter 11: Mallory

"Mallory?" Sean asked softly through the door, knocking quietly.

"Yes?" I asked. He walked in slowly, looking at the floor.

"Aurelia left."

"I figured." Sean finally looked up at me and his eyes were filled with tears.

"Do you hate me?" He asked.

My heart broke a little.

"Sean, of course not! I love you!" I yelled, getting up to hug him. He sniffled quietly in my shoulder.

"Aurelia told me you did..." I pulled away from him, but held his shoulders.

"What?" He led me over to my bed and sat down. I positioned myself beside him and looked his straight in the eye. "What did she say to you?"

"That your parents are going to kick me out since they've not fully adopted me yet because of what I did. That you, Trace, El, everyone hates me."

"No, Sean. Trace and El may hate you, but El is kinda wrapped up in her own world and has taken Trace into it. They both love you deep down. And you will always have a family here with us, Sean. We love you," I whispered, pulling him in for another hug.

I hadn't seen him cry in quite some time.

"Did you mean what you said to her on Tuesday?" I asked carefully.

"No, of course not! I don't know what happened..."

"That's all I need to know."

"You know what part hurt the most?" He asked.

"What?"

"She said she wasn't my fiancé..." My eyes grew wide, and I almost cried at the sight of him. His head was in his hands and he huffed out a breath.

"Don't think about it, Sean. She'll come back, she always does." He moved his head to look at me and he smiled.

"Thanks."

"Why'd your plans with Avery get cancelled?"

"She has to go to some friend of her parent's house."

"Do you know who's house?"

"No, but she said she hasn't met them yet. They have a son our age though." I just kinda nodded.

"Hey, Sean?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you tried apologizing?"

"Not really..."

"Why not?"

"Well she told me not to be friends with her in public! I didn't mean it but technically I'm doing her a favor." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay, maybe not, but still. She told me not to stand up for her in school or be friends. It'll ruin my 'rep'."

"Yeah, she said that, but she's moving up the social ladder now, thanks to Trace. It'll ruin your rep if you try to replace that. People think her and Trace are secretly together, which is helping a lot even if they don't know it."

"I don't want Eli to become popular. It will change her. I know it. It changed me. It didn't change you, but that's surprising. It changed Lily, she wasn't like this in middle school. It changed Wes, it changes everyone. She's just so sweet and innocent..."

"Sean. Trace isn't trying to change her, he's trying to help her. Plus, it's for a school project."

"Whatever. Don't say I didn't tell you this would happen," he said, getting up and walking out. "I'm going to see Parker, okay?"